James and Yosef…

August 19, 2006 | 1:34 AM

I have three friends named James. James D. is in Columbus, Georgia as a youth minister. Another is James W. who works at Rue De La Course in Uptown. Finally, James H. lives in Baton Rouge and is from Iowa. It’s this final James that I refer to in remainder of this post. James and I met in January 2005 here in New Orleans when he moved here from Nebraska. He lived in the same dorm as me, and we share a mutual roommate (the one we call Mr. Jimmy). This particular James, a Dutch Iowan, married a beautiful Nigerian woman whom I’ve had the pleasure of meeting only once, but I’ve heard many great things about. James is also responsible for one of my least favorite culinary adventures. You can read about that here. I have tremendous respect for James. One of the first times we met, he asked me to go pray with him. He has a carefree attitude. He seems to have one of the closest relationships with God I have ever seen in a person. He gets it. And I appreciate that he gets it. He’s been cursed and hexed by his mother-in-law, and he’s taken it all in stride.  Most of all, he calls me Yosef, and somehow convinces everybody that’s my name. I’m grateful for James. I wanted to share this picture he drew for me in class the other day. I don’t have a scanner here, so I’ve taken a photo of it.

Well isn’t that special?

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